even if one is certain that it will occur, since nothing in the future can occur except by Allah’s will.

Thus, our statement, “This will happen, if Allah wills,” is true, for it will happen only if Allah wills. The wording merely makes its occurrence conditional; making something conditional does not necessarily imply doubt. Rather, that depends on the speaker’s knowledge: sometimes he is doubtful, and sometimes he is not. Since doubt frequently accompanies this expression because people do not know how things will turn out, some have supposed that doubt forms part of its meaning. That is not so.

In His words,

“You will surely enter the Sacred Mosque, if Allah wills,”

no doubt on Allah’s part is conceivable, nor indeed on the part of His Messenger, who was being addressed, or the believers. Hence Thaʿlab said: “This is a qualification made by Allah concerning something He knows, whereas created beings make such qualifications concerning what they do not know.”

Abū ʿUbaydah and Ibn Qutaybah said that in (“if”) here means idh (“when”), that is, “when Allah willed.” The point of this is to express the certainty of the action through in, just as it is expressed through idh. Strictly speaking, however, idh is an adverb specifying time, whereas in is a conditional particle.

If it is objected that the Arabs say, “When the unripe dates turn red, come to me,” but do not say, “If the unripe dates turn red,” the answer is: The purpose here is to specify the time of coming as the time when the dates turn red. They therefore use the temporal adverb that conveys certainty. The word in does not specify a time; it merely expresses a condition, linking the second action to the first. The parallel to the matter under discussion would be their saying, “The unripe dates will turn red and become sweet, if Allah wills.” This is true, and it is analogous to the expression in question.

If it is objected: Some people sought to avoid this meaning and took the qualification to refer to something uncertain. Thus al-Zajjāj said concerning “You will surely enter the Sacred Mosque”: that is, He commanded you